Chasing the Storm
by bluewindranger
Summary: Ninja Storm has seen plenty of weird things. Clown ninjas, getting turned into perfume bottles, kangaroos with boxing gloves—the list can go on and on. But crashing a movie set that is filming an episode from a certain popular TV show? That's new. Includes Once a Ranger members, takes place during it. MMPR/NS/OO. DISCONTINUED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
1. Evil Mushrooms

**Okay, just saying, I have no idea where this idea popped up from. Just something I'm trying out, so please give out CC. Thanks, and enjoy.**

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**Chasing the Storm**

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Summary – _Ninja Storm has seen plenty of weird things. Clown ninjas, getting turned into perfume bottles, kangaroos with boxing gloves—the list can go on and on. But crashing a movie set that is filming an episode from a certain popular TV show? That's new. Includes Once a Ranger members, takes place during it. NS/OO._

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**1. Evil Mushrooms  
**

"My butt hurts."

So was Dustin's first comment as soon as he and Shane stepped out of the car into the city of San Angeles.

Shane grinned. "And you ride motocross?"

For once, the earth ninja was not in the mood for a joke. "Well, why don't _you_ try sitting in the driver's seat for five hours straight, your foot on the gas pedal, while not stopping for food or gas next time?"

"There were cookies in the back," Shane offered unhelpfully.

Dustin ran a hand through his wavy brown hair, frustrated. "Oh, thanks for not telling me." He thought for a moment, and then his expression considerably brightened. "But, hey—can I have some?"

Shane nervously rubbed his hands together. "Um, about that, man…"

Dustin clapped a hand to his forehead. "Don't tell me. They're in _there._" He poked Shane in the stomach, and the owner of the stomach violently flinched and stumbled a few steps back.

"Dude, never, ever, _ever_ do that again."

"Oh, that's right!" Dustin smiled. "You're ticklish." He wiggled his fingers. "You wanna go for a Round Two?"

"No!" Shane practically screeched. He regained his composure. "C'mon, _Waldo,_ let's just…I dunno, grab some hot dogs and bail."

Dustin craned his neck. "I don't see any hot dog stands."

Shane gripped the sensei's wrist, pulling him down the street. "And they call me an airhead," he muttered as Dustin continued searching for his beloved hot dogs when a tremor shook the city.

"Okay, what the hell is happening?" Shane asked, utterly confused.

Dustin shook Shane. "Um, bro...? Dude!"

Shane turned around, and caught a glimpse of a group of people who looked frighteningly similar to a few people he knew, but by then, he and Dustin had already gotten sucked through some sort of portal, and two seconds later, they fell straight at a pair of blue boots that looked very familiar.

* * *

In no way was Tori prepared for a sudden appearance of a gold, glowing straight-out-of-the-medieval-time-period man in front of her, especially if she was listening to music on her iPod.

Naturally, it freaked the considerable amount of people that were in the airport terminal out, which was reduced to a writhing mass of utter chaos.

As for Tori, she did the most un-Ranger-like thing she ever did, minus outing the camp power generator with water.

She dropped everything that was in her hands and screamed. "I am _so through_ glowing men popping up straight in front of me from thin air!"

The glowing knight cocked his head. "Was that a sarcastic statement?"

Tori blinked. "Um…sure. Let's go with that."

The dude solemnly nodded. "Very good, Victoria Hanson."

Tori flinched when the guy said that, which she had never told anyone. Then, it occurred to her:

"Hey, how do you know my name?"

God, she was getting slow. This thought instantly came out of her mouth as a moan:

"I. Am. So. Old_._"

"_Anyways,_" the mystery dude said, clearing his throat with just a hint of irritation in his voice, "when you hear my preposition, I will tell you that I've already been electrically shocked two times collecting you people, and am not looking forwards to a third."

"Okay!" Tori brightly said after a moment's thought. "Then I'll douse you in water first, and then electrocute you painfully. How does that sound?"

"Bad," the man stoically replied. "And you haven't even heard what I have to offer you."

Tori's bad mood returned with a vengeance. "Well, it better be a good offer, dude, 'cause I _promised_ my parents that I would come to visit them today, and I haven't seen them in ages, and—"

"Are you always this difficult?" the glowing man murmured, and then, he cupped his hands. There was a bright blue flash, and her "defunct" Wind Morpher lay there, as brightly polished as the day when she first received it.

Tori froze, and then made up her mind.

* * *

**_Fifteen seconds later…_**

* * *

"I'm taking that as a 'no'," the spirit muttered, his armor still drenched and sparking.

"Oh, I'll come back," Tori retorted, swiping away her Morpher. "But that's for all the trouble that I'll have to endure when I try to explain to my mom and Blake that I'm running off to save the world. Again." She frowned. "Wait. My mom doesn't know that I'm a Ranger. Doesn't that mean that—"

The knight grumbled. "Out of _all_ the Blue Rangers I could have picked, I had to choose the one with the sarcastic, annoying attitude."

"Hey!" Tori snapped. "You're not exactly Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes yourself, yeah? By the way, do you always act like this, or are you like a Cyber Cam?"

"...Come again?"

Tori threw her hands up in exasperation. "So where am I going, spirit-knight-thingy-ma-bob?"

"I'm the _Sentinel Knight_," the knight huffed, "thank you very much. Now, please hold onto my hand."

Tori raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"And for your sake and mine, do _not_ even think about shocking me!"

The water ninja rolled her eyes, but gripped the Sentinel Knight's hand, which was surprising solid. In a flash of gold, Tori found herself free-falling through the air.

She did the thing that any normal person would have done: she screamed her head off cursing. Really, it was a stupendous display of profanity.

The ground was coming up fast, and Tori's mind went into autopilot: _Knees bent. Feet first. Relax muscles. Hit with balls of feet. Roll._

The impact knocked the wind out of her, and Tori rolled over about ten times on the grassy ground before coming to a halt at a the base of a rock and hitting her head on the said hard surface.

Stars burst across Tori's vision as she staggered upright, every muscle of her being aching like crazy. She was experiencing double vision, and nearly fell over again.

"Oh, thanks a lot!" she yelled into thin air, "drop me in the middle of nowhere while practically giving me a concussion!"

The air did not reply.

Tori rubbed her head, infuriated, and glanced around her surroundings, which was basically a grassy field full of huge, gray stones.

In other words, she was at Stonehenge.

"Yo! Over here, girl-who-I-think-is-the-Blue-Ranger!"

Tori whirled around, catching sight of a hopping, waving guy wearing white and green. Around him, three other people milled about. She jogged towards him, and then glared at him. "My name is Tori. Not 'Girl-Who-I-Think-Is-The-Blue-Ranger'."

The guy scratched his head. "Oh. Okay. But you _are_ the Blue Ranger, huh?"

Tori couldn't help but smile. "Yep. Blue Wind Ranger, at your service. And your name is...?"

"Xander," he replied in an Aussie accent. "Xander Bly. Green Mystic Ranger."

Tori heard another couple of voices behind them. One of them was saying:

"You're Kira Ford? _That_ Kira Ford?"

"Um, yeah, I'm _that_ Kira Ford."

"That sounds funny," another male voice butted in. "'That' Kira Ford."

"Wonderful. Anything else I need to know, other than us being back as Rangers, you being a pop star, and girl Blue Rangers?" the first voice asked.

"Hey!" Tori shouted in their direction. "What's wrong with girl Blue Rangers?"

Xander gestured towards the three former Rangers. "Kira Ford—"

"Yeah, I know," Tori interrupted. "Yellow Dino Ranger. She and I fought alongside each other after I tried to kill her. It's a long story."

Xander's eyes widened in alarm. "Um...okay...the guy in red is Bridge Carson, and the other dude is Adam Park. Y'know, original Black Mighty Morphin' Ranger?"

It was Tori's turn to be surprised. "Really?" Once again, a revelation hit her. "Wait, was he the guy who insulted the fact that Blue Rangers can be female?"

By that time, Adam, Kira, and Bridge had walked up to them.

"Yeah," Kira supplied.

Tori crossed her arms. "That is just sexist."

Adam held up his hands. "I didn't mean it that way! It was just a...surprising fact."

Tori decided to drop it, and then let the guys socialize while she turned to Kira.

"You know, I was just listening to your new hit single before I got rudely interrupted by the, um, Sentinel Knight," Tori conversationally said.

"Really?" Kira laughed. "To be honest with you, it was just an extremely revised version of our team-up. Of course, nobody needs to know that."

"I could tell from the name," Tori wryly answered. "'Thunder Storm', yeah? Dino _Thunder_, Ninja _Storm_. You know that if your fan base _ever_ found out that you were a Power Ranger—"

Kira groaned. "Don't even go there."

"Hey," Tori laughed, holding up her hands. "Just speculating. In case it ever happens..." She smirked at Kira, who swatted her.

"You wouldn't dare, Tori Hanson," she fake-growled.

"Bite me," Tori retorted, and then dropped the subject. "Anyways, how did you get here?"

Kira shrugged. "I was in Reefside. Sentinel Knight appeared in front of me. Asked me to return as a Power Ranger. I accepted. Next thing I knew, I was standing next to Adam and Bridge." She winked at Tori's dumbstruck expression. "Unlike you, who practically crash-landed here. We could hear your colorful language all the way from over here."

Tori rolled her eyes. "You would do the same if you had been deposited a hundred feet above the ground without a warning, and began to free-fall towards the ground."

"But I haven't," Kira teased. "And I don't have a potty mouth."

Tori grinned. "We'll see about that." Without warning, she rammed into Kira, and both of them tumbled onto the ground in a heap.

"Oh, _crap!_" Kira groaned as she practically got squashed by Tori. The three boys looked over, alarmed at the loud _thump_. "Damn you, Tori! Have you ever heard of a 'low-carb diet'?"

Tori didn't get off, basking in the glow of her victory. "Are you implying the fact that I'm fat?"

"NO!" Kira yelled, squirming. "Get off!"

"Or what?" Tori asked, enjoying the fact that Kira was getting more and more pissed off.

The next thing she knew, Tori was tumbling head-over-heels, her ears ringing, slamming straight into Adam. They both landed with an _oof!_ sound.

Kira smugly grinned from over fifty feet away. Xander and Bridge were doubled over with side-splitting laughter.

"Oh, man!" Bridge gasped. "Funniest. Thing. EVER!"

"Are you crazy?" Tori weakly yelled from where she was still lying on top of Adam, which elicited a groan from the older man. "Oops. Sorry." She sheepishly got off.

"Or I'll use my Ptera Scream on you," Kira yelled.

"I think that we've already proven that," Adam groaned, getting up.

A second, louder explosion rocked the ground beneath them, and Tori consequently fell over again.

"What is it with earthquakes these days?" Tori whined, climbing to her feet again.

Adam brushed some loose rocks and dirt off of him. "I guess that that's our cue to help these Overdrive Rangers," he lightly said, taking out boxy-looking Morpher. "You guys ready?"

"Rea—"

"Not ready!" Tori said. The four other Rangers looked at her.

"I have to find my Morpher," she sheepishly admitted. "It got lost somewhere after my tussle with Kira."

The other four Rangers impatiently waited while Tori went snooping around the grass, where she eventually caught a flash of blue.

"A Ranger is always prepared," Kira giggled when Tori hurried back. The water sensei threw her an irritable look as she attached her Morpher.

Adam tried once again. "Ready?"

"Ready!"

"It's Morphin' time!"

"Ninja Storm, Ranger form, HA!"

"Dino Thunder, power up, HA!"

"S.P.D., Emergency!"

"Magical Source, Mystic Force!"

Once morphed, they raced to the scene, where the last Overdrive Ranger had just gotten their ass kicked by two weird people on armor: one black, one blue.

Xander spread his arms. "I've got this, mate," he grinned, patting Adam on the back. "Just watch." He held out a weapon that looked like an axe, and instantaneously, the guy in black was engulfed in a bunch of writhing tree roots. Xander himself was already behind the monster he just attacked.

"Surprise!" he cheered, shouldering the weapon.

"I guess I got Blue Guy," Bridge murmured, and then charged in, firing his gun. It hit the guy in blue square in the back, causing him to fall and grunt with pain.

"Hello!" he called.

Kira looked at the two other Rangers, and then drew out her Ptera Grips. Without saying anything else, she flipped into battle, where the dude in black had escaped his bonds. With a huge slash, Kira hit the monster and landed on one of the stones.

She looked down at the scene. "It's great to be back!"

Tori glanced at Adam, who gave her a thumbs-up. She was just about to step forwards when a black blur appeared in front of her, and Shane and Dustin lay groaning at her feet.

Tori swallowed, and then knelt down by them. "Um, guys?"

Adam seemed to frown behind his helmet. "Tori...we have, like, five seconds before Blue Guy gets over his confusion and attacks."

"No! Wait!"

Adam shrugged. "I guess we can spare a few minutes. I'll go, okay, but please be back!" He raced into battle.

Tori turned her attention back to Shane and Dustin. She opened her visor, and then slapped Dustin across the face. "Dustin! Wake up!"

"HOT DOGS!" the earth sensei screamed, causing Tori to jump and land on her rump.

Dustin took a moment for his eyes to focus. "...Dude? Tori? What the heck are you doing back in that spandex?"

Tori ignored him. "Help me get Shane up, quick! We're in the middle of a battle scene, in case you haven't noticed!" She left Dustin to do just that and closed her visor, streaking in to help. She slashed with her sword a couple of times at the black guy, and then landed, calling, "Let the games begin!"

The two monsters slammed against each other, back-to-back, and then growled something among themselves, and then ran away.

Tori watched as the Overdrive Rangers began talking, staring at Adam, Kira, Bridge, Xander, and she as if they'd never seen a Power Rangers before.

Tori was the firs to de-morph, abandoning her new teammates to run to Dustin and Shane.

"He awake yet?" she called, running to Dustin's side.

Dustin cleared his throat. "Well, actually, Tor, I was wondering if you could spray him with water or something..."

"Why didn't I think of that?" Tori sarcastically said, and then, positioning her hands above the air ninja, drenched him in freezing cold water.

Shane's eyes flew open. "CLONES!" he screamed, and then noticed Dustin and Tori hovering over him.

"Clones?" Dustin stated, confused. "Bro, did you eat some evil mushrooms or something? 'Cause we're not clones. At least, I'm not a clone. I don't know about her." He jabbed a finger at Tori, who swatted it away.

"Never mind. Definitely her." Dustin paused. "Unless you were talking about those other people..."

"Other people, as in them?" Tori gestured towards the Retro and Overdrive Rangers.

"Uh, no," Shane muttered. "I mean, I could _swear_ I saw someone who looked just like you...and another girl who looked like Kira..."

Tori blinked. "I hate to agree with Dustin on this one—"

"Hey!" Dustin complained. "My ideas are totally awesome!"

"—but maybe you _have_ been eating evil mushrooms," Tori finished.

"Speaking of which," Dustin interrupted, "why are there a bunch of people staring at us?"

Tori facepalmed. "Guys, meet the current team of Rangers and the Retros..."

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**So, yeah. This was kind of a filler chapter. But, do you love it? Hate it? Review it! Please give me feedback!**


	2. Of Questions and Answers

**Thanks for the reviews, guys! I was at sleepaway camp for three weeks. No. Wi-Fi. At all. :(  
**

**Now, I just wanna say, I have no idea what the actors' real personalities are like. It is purely from my own imagination. So I'm not bashing them in any way: those actors are awesome. They made the PR franchise possible. A few of them even chatted with fans on RangerBoard! So of course, they will be OOC, 'cause I've never ever met them before. Hell, they're all the way in New Zealand while I'm stuck in Boringtown, U.S.A.**

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**Chasing the Storm**

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**Last time on **_**Chasing the Storm**_**... **

Adam, Tori, Kira, Bridge, and Xander returned to Ranger glory as the Overdrive Rangers were getting badly beaten by Kamdor and Mig. But when Shane and Dustin got deposited at Tori's feet, they brought a hint of news that might change everything forever...

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**2. Of Questions and Answers**

"Whoooa," Xander grinned as he stepped into the base of Operation Overdrive. "This place is _way_ better than a hollow tree!"

Dustin scratched his head. "Dude, maybe it's just me, but I think that anything's better than a hollow tree."

"So, you guys were all Rangers before," Will said, starting the conversation. "But you still have your powers."

"Except for me," Shane, Dustin, and Bridge said in unison. Everybody else looked at them, confused.

Dustin draped an arm over Shane's shoulders. "I mean, dudes, we don't have our powers. We kinda just dropped in front of Tor, and hoped that she wouldn't step on our faces."

"I should have done that a long time ago," the said Blue Ranger muttered.

"No, no, no," Bridge hurried to explain. "I, uh...well, you see, I'm not a Ranger yet, but...er, I _will_ be. In the future, I mean."

Ronny and Rose both gave him a funny look.

"In the future," Bridge announced, "I'll be the Green Ranger!"

Xander grinned at him. "Nice, mate."

"Oh, and then I'm going to be the Blue Ranger."

Tori glanced upwards, smirking, while Shane and Dustin both laughed, high-fiving each other. "See, Tori, told ya! Not all Blue Rangers have to be all 'mellow' and 'calm'!"

Will elbowed Dax, chuckling.

"But who ever said that you would _want to _be the Blue Ninja Storm Ranger in the first place?" Adam quietly asked. "Unless you want to wear the skirt that comes along with a girl Ranger's uniform."

Tori, Kira, Rose, and Ronny rolled their eyes at the comment, while the men laughed.

Once the laughter subsided, Rose pointed out mildly, "But...you're wearing red?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," Bridge stuttered, "Long story short, our mentor, who's, well, uh, who's a dog, got promoted to head of S.P.D., which used to be run by a bird, but he retired and went down to Miami, because, I dunno, maybe he wanted to get a suntan, and then Sky got promoted and I got promoted, and that's why I'm the Red Ranger!" Bridge paused for a moment, and then frowned. "Or rather...will be."

Everybody else gave Bridge a look, while Kira was frantically searching through the files of her memory cabinet. She _felt_ like she had met Bridge and Sky and a dog somewhere before, but she couldn't quite place her finger on it.

After a long period of awkward silence, Dax, the Blue Overdrive Ranger, broke out into a grin. "Well. Makes sense to me!"

"And who is this 'Sky' that you're talking about?" Xander asked.

"Yeah, dude!" Dustin smiled, a grin that could have split a banana. "Is he the sky? 'Cause the sky's blue, and he's the Blue Ranger! That's totally sweet!"

Shane and Tori both clapped a hand to their forehead as their air-headed teammate began throwing out conspiracy theories.

After about two minutes of this, Ronny interrupted, "I don't think that the sky can wear a suit."

"Yes," Tyzonn neutrally said. "It doesn't have a head. Or arms. Or legs. Or a physical manifestation, at that."

Dustin thought for a moment, and then shrugged. "Just a thought."

"Um...Sky's the Blue Ranger," Bridge frowned. "And then the Red one. I mean, he _will_ be. God, this is confusing..."

"Tell me about it, man," Adam, Mack, and Xander said at the same time.

"Wait—what's confusing?" Tori asked, as she had been spacing out through most of the conversation.

Kira shrugged. "Thunderstorms?" She and Tori giggled, and Shane and Dustin both looked at them in astonishment.

"Dustin?" Shane whispered.

The former Yellow Wind Ranger nodded. "I hear you, man. Have you _ever_ heard Tori giggle?"

"In any case!" Mr. Hartford started, because the banter was starting to get unbearable, "Welcome, and we're so glad to have you here!"

"But, um, _why_ are you here?" Rose cautiously asked. "No offense or anything."

"Your connection to the Morphing Grid's broken," Mr. Hartford briskly explained.

Rose knit her eyebrows. "But if the Morphing Grid's broken, how are you guys able to morph?"

" Well, except us!" Shane reminded her. "We don't have our powers any more!"

Tori swatted him. "Will you _stop saying that?_ I think that everybody knows it by now!"

"Somebody severed _your_ connection," Kira said. "I mean, I think. And it wouldn't affect the former Rangers, anyways, because we've all lost our powers. But the Sentinel Knight—"

"I hate that guy!" Tori complained. "He dropped me in the middle of nowhere, a hundred feet off the ground with _no freaking parachute_! I'm gonna have bruises for a week!"

As everybody tittered, Dustin frowned. "I'm starting to have second thoughts about whether or not that Tori's a clone."

Adam cleared his throat. "Go on, Kira."

"But the Sentinel Knight used some of his powers to restore our own," Kira finished.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hartford was staring at the computer monitor. "Er, guys? You are _not_ going to believe this."

Everybody clustered around the screen, which was displaying a bunch of people...filming on a set. And the very disturbing thing was...

"Okay, as much as I dislike glowing gold men," Tori groaned, "I hate copies of myself even worse. Didn't I already go through this?"

"Are they evil?" Kira asked worriedly. "Because I don't want to kick my own butt."

"Oh my god!" Dustin grinned, hugging a startled Kira. "We think alike!"

Ronny blinked. "Is that a good thing? It doesn't look like a good thing."

"It is!" Dustin beamed, sweeping Ronny in. "Yellow Ranger love!"

"HELP ME!" Ronny yelled. "MACK, I WILL KILL YOU RIGHT NOW IF YOU DON'T GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

The Red Overdrive Ranger looked torn between going to help his teammate or being killed, which, if you asked Ronny, was a simple decision in itself. You live or die. Simple.

"Um, Ronny?" Kira asked. "Do you mind not screaming in my ear?"

Shane shrugged as everybody looked at him and Tori (except for the two squirming female Yellow Rangers), as they were Dustin's teammates. "_So_ not my fault."

Adam, meanwhile, was preoccupied with the computer, which everybody else had been distracted from by Dustin's cuddling. He frowned, leaning in closer. "No way..." He drew himself upright. "Guys, has anybody ever told you that somebody transformed Power Rangers into a TV show franchise?"

"So _that's_ what they were?" Shane gaped, staring at the monitor.

That snapped everybody out of their goofing around. Dustin released both Ronny and Kira, while Dax's mouth fell slightly open.

"'Cause I think that they're using look-alike actors to film what we're supposed to be doing right about now."

Mack pointed towards a large tree. "Whoa. Even Moltor, Flurious, and Thrax have been fooled; they think that they're actually us."

"But wouldn't they notice the TV cameras?" Tyzonn questioned.

"Maybe they think 'we're'"—Will made air quotes—"doing an interview. Or something."

Tori crossed her arms. "Well, I'm not about to let my own ass get kicked around by a monster, clone or not. Who knows?"

"So...are we going?" Mack asked, looking at Mr. Hartford, who cleared his throat.

"Yes, _these_ Rangers are going," he softly replied, indicating towards Adam, Tori, Kira, Bridge, and Xander, "but not you—or any of the Overdrive Rangers, on that note."

Ronny looked thunderstruck. "Why?"

She wasn't the only one. Will glanced at Mr. Hartford, Dax's eyebrows shot up, Rose looked surprised, Tyzonn blinked, and Mack frowned.

Mr. Hartford looked away, and Shane and Adam exchanged glances with each other. The two oldest leaders present grimly looked at the Overdrive Rangers. Adam cleared his throat. "Erm, without your powers, you're really...vulnerable."

"We can still fight!" Mack protested.

"And come back bleeding all over, bones shattered?" Shane heavily asked. "We should stay here."

Dax opened his mouth, ready to protest, when Mr. Hartford angrily intervened.

"Retro Rangers, go. Overdrive Rangers, Shane, and Dustin, stay here."

Bridge, Adam, and Kira shot out. Tori helplessly shrugged at the Overdrive Rangers, while Xander gave them a sympathetic look, and then they both turned to leave, freezing when the Black Overdrive Ranger shouted.

"What? No!" Will scowled.

"That is an _order!_" Mr. Hartford snapped. "You are to stay behind!"

"I don't give any shit about it, either!" Ronny angrily butted in. "So, what, you got them to _replace_ us as Rangers?"

The atmosphere grew cold as soon as Ronny said that. The remaining four Overdrive Rangers who hadn't said anything against the Retros going stiffened, and then their expressions became stony as they glared at the two remaining Retro Rangers. Tori and Xander both looked at each other in alarm.

Shane and Dustin hurried to intervene before Tori or Xander could get their neck snapped in half. "Guys, you can't go out there," Shane insisted. "It's too dangerous."

"We've fought monsters without our suits before!" Dax protested. "It's not as if this time is any different."

"Um, yeah, it is," Dustin regretfully said. "Thrax is out there. If he weren't, I'd be out there, fighting, too."

Mr. Hartford nodded at Tori and Xander. "Go." They raced away without another word, with Tori grabbing Xander's hand, with her streaking them away in a black blur.

"Listen to them!" A booming voice interrupted, and the Sentinel Knight appeared. "As long as you six remain without your powers, you are not to go out onto the battlefield! The Retros can take it!"

"So you're saying that we're incompetent without our powers," Mack stonily said, folding his arms.

"He's not!" Shane exasperatedly said. "He's just saying that it's too dangerous for you to go out there!"

"Dangerous, my ass," Ronny snapped. "We've faced plenty of dangerous situations before this incident! I mean, like Dax said before, this time's no different! Who cares about Thrax?"

Rose looked uneasy. "But maybe they're right..." she murmured so softly that nobody could hear her but Dustin, who was standing right next to her. He gave her a small grin.

"What part of 'no' do you not understand?" Mr. Hartford flashed back. "You are all staying here! No more questions will be asked!" He stalked away, leaving the Overdrive Rangers to simmer in their fury and two ninjas to keep peace and order within them.

Behind the banister, Tori and Xander looked at each other.

"_Now_, what do we do?" Tori whispered. "They're probably so mad at us, they're going to murder us in our sleep and, I dunno, steal our Morphers."

"You're over-thinking it," Xander replied. "I'm sure they'd never do something like that."

Just then, Tori's cellphone rang, and the eight people in the room turned to look at where the source of the noise was.

"Crap!" Tori cursed quietly, and she streaked herself and Xander out of the house before anybody noticed that they were spying. She looked down at the caller ID, and it said, _Blake Bradley_.

Tori considered taking it for a moment, and then picked up.

"Hello?"

Xander stared at her as if she was crazy. "Tori, we're in the middle of a fight for the survival of the world, here..."

Tori held up a hand as Blake replied with a hectic note in his tone. _"Where in Ninjor's name are you?"_

The water ninja frowned. Swearing on the name of the creator of the Ninja Academies was nothing to be thrown around lightly. "Language, Blake."

_"Language? _Language?_ I can't find you anywhere, Dustin and Shane are gone, too, and you think I'm worrying about my fucked-up _language? _Tori, where the heck are you?"_

"I'm, uh...shopping with Shane and Dustin?"

_"Very funny."_ If you asked Tori, she would have said that Blake's tone of voice had a pH of around negative two billion. _"Since when have you liked shopping?"_

Tori's Morpher beeped, and the Green Mystic Ranger himself was trying to use sign language to get Tori off her phone.

"Since never," Tori sighed. "Listen, Blake, I _really_ have to go now. Like, really, really have to go."

There was a thump at the other end of the line. _"Tori? Is it just me, or did I hear a Morpher beep?"_

"I think that you've been eating too many hallucinogens or something," she snorted. "I'll see you later."

Tori's Wind Morpher beeped again, and she clicked it.

_"Tori, Xander? Where are you guys?"_

"Coming," Tori replied, and she and Xander both death-sprinted towards the crime scene, which was pretty easy to locate, as there was a huge screen around the area.

"Hey," Tori whispered to Kira as she and Xander settled by the rest of the Retros.

"So, what'd they say?" Kira muttered back.

Tori shook her head. "Tell you later." She fixed her attention onto the tree.

"Okay, here's what I'm thinking," Adam quietly said. "Somebody has to drive Thrax and his buddies away before they attack these actors. Can any of you, like, superspeed or something?"

Tori raised her hand. "Well, if Conner McKnight were here—"

Kira and Xander both pointed towards Tori in the middle of her sentence, who rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. Yes, I can ninja-streak. Why?"

"Make a diversion," Adam instructed. "While Xander, Bridge, Kira, and I drive away the nasties, just preoccupy the camera people and actors so that they don't look our way."

"Rather hard to do," Tori observed, chewing her lip. She studied the points where she could strike, and then nodded slowly as she looked a fountain by the film set. "But I think I can make it work."

"Nice," Adam nodded. "So on the count of three, morph quietly, okay? We don't want anybody hearing."

As they morphed, Adam silently nodded, holding up three fingers. "One. Two. Three!"

Tori thrust our her hands, and a stream of water flew out of the fountain. While the actors were too preoccupied with their own business to notice that liquid was flowing past their hands, the cameramen noticed, and they dropped their devices with a loud _thunk_.

Tori took a deep breath, and then flipped into action, making sure that she blurred so that none of the people could actually see her clearly. While running at top speed, she hurriedly manipulated the water into shapes, and then relinquished her hold on the water after about a minute.

Tori could feel herself weakening by this point, and she knew she couldn't keep the streaking up for long.

"Hurry _up, _guys," she groaned quietly as she zipped past an astounded double of Adam. She didn't have to wait long, although the resulting accident completely blew her cover.

_BOOOOOOOOOM!_ With a huge explosion, Thrax, Flurious, and Moltor went flying, landing in the middle of the set.

Tori couldn't stand it. She flipped over the set and called softly, "What happened to being quiet?"

"Um...Bridge and Kira fired their lasers at the same time, while Xander made those tree root things bind the monsters together, and I just popped them up into the air," Adam explained in one breath.

"Well, everybody knows that we're here now," Tori weakly said. "And the bad dudes are recovering. So now what do we do?"

Adam seemed to look at her weirdly. "We beat them, and we get the hell out of here."

Tori looked at Kira. "Like the old times?"

"You got it!" the Yellow Dino Ranger agreed. "Super Dino Mode!" She jumped out with her Ptera Grips, and Tori streaked in after her.

"AGH!" Moltor screamed as Tori struck him across the chest. "Curse you, Ranger!"

"How 'bout two?" Kira yelled, and then gave Flurious a huge whack across the chest.

"You know," Tori muttered to Kira as she passed, "I'm surprised that these knock-off Rangers haven't had cardiac arrest or something by this point. But anyways, cover me. I'll explain things to them, get them out of here before somebody gets hurt." She was vaguely aware that Adam, Bridge, and Xander had joined in by this point, but she broke away from the fight and raced to one of the cameramen.

"You better go right now," she told him. She looked him over, and noticed that he was shaking as if he had contracted hypothermia. Frowning, she gave him a small nudge. "You're going to get hurt if you stay here any longer. Go!"

Without another word, the man raced away, screaming his head off.

By this time, everybody except, ironically, the actor-Rangers had fled the scene, screaming something about pie or whatnot.

Tori heavily sighed. "Here we go." She marched straight up to her clone and asked, "Are you evil?" She ducked as a stray laser beam flew past where her head had been a second before.

Okay, okay, that may have sounded really paranoid, but could you blame her? She was through and through with evil versions of the Power Rangers. It was becoming a nasty cliché of sorts, these doppelgängers of her.

Her clone swallowed, evidently freaked out. "Um...how about, no? Wait, is this a reference to that episode when I—I mean, you—I mean, you-I—okay, this got really confusing."

"If you mean the time when I got stuck in a camera," Tori grumbled, "then yes. Or that time when I got transported to the freaky alternate reality, where Lothor was good and Kelzaks helped people inflate their beach chairs, totally. Why am _I_ always stuck with evil Rangers?"

"I don't know," the other-Tori mumbled. "I was just following the script. Um, but, there were improv scenes...and replacements...and Japanese stunt doubles in some of the scenes where we had to use spandexes...and Sentai footage—at least, that's what the producers told us...and I don't think that you're following me at all, are you?"

Tori tapped her helmet. "I lost you somewhere around 'script'. Because it sounds to me that you went through the exact same things I did, except that it wasn't actually _dangerous_ or anything for you. You just had to conquer stage fright."

"AHHHHHH!" Kira went flying past her and hit a brick wall.

"Like, that dangerous?" her double nervously asked.

"Um, yeah, let's go with that," Tori laughed off-handedly. "By the way, who _are_ you?"

Before her double got a chance to answer, Tori tackled her to the ground as Moltor got thrown past them.

By this time, Kira had recovered, and cheered, "Let's play tennis!" She brought both of her Ptera Grips down onto the flaming monster, and he flew back to Adam, who whacked him with his axe.

"Retreat!" Thrax screamed. "Report back to base!"

"But I thought that we were going to that place in China after we beat the Rangers!" Flurious complained as they disappeared.

"I never knew that monsters liked Chinese food," Kira grinned as she powered down. Then, she looked at Tori and her double. Tori was still in her suit, and her double was still on the ground. "But I'll never get over _that_ scene."

"Well, why don't you look at _your_ double and say that again?" Tori peevishly snapped, irritated.

Kira looked over at her double. "Hi, me. Wow, this is weird. Nice to meet you, me!"

"Um..." other Kira stuttered.

Tori helped her double up while calling to Kira, "I think that you're freaking her out."

"You're freaking _me_ out," other-Tori mumbled.

"You know, you can speak louder," Tori told her. "It's not as if I'm going to bite your head off or anything if you make me go deaf. Well, actually, I might, but you're not going to talk that loudly, are you?"

The actress raised a hand nervously. "Um, aren't you supposed to be, like, nice, logical, a 'good girl', and un-sarcastic?"

Tori smirked, but then remembered that she still hadn't powered down, and therefore, nobody could see her grin. "Ninja form." The Ranger suit dispersed around her, and Tori stared down at her double. "'Good girl', depends on who you ask. Logical, of course. Nice, it depends. But un-sarcastic? Thank god that TV show Tori isn't exactly like me."

"Oh...but does that mean that your Jason—Cam isn't sarcastic?"

"Psh." Tori waved it off. "Cam was born sardonic. And who's Jason? Cam's actor? By the way, you have yet to tell me what yours is."

"I'm...um...Sa—"

"Toriiiiii!" Kira whined from a couple feet away. "I need your awesome psychiatrist skills right about now!"

Tori blinked. "Say what?"

"I think that Other Me is about to go into a state of shock."

"What a surprise," Tori drily replied. "Just stop acting...acting like...er...like yourself."

Kira frowned. "Then who should I act like? Conner? Ethan? Dr. O? Mesogog? Lothor?"

"No!" Tori yelled, covering her ears. "Never. Suggest. That. Again. Oh, the mental images...no. Just...no. See, that's exactly how you _shouldn't_ act like, 'kay, Kira?"

"I don't get it..."

"XANDER!" Tori practically screeched, scaring the Green Ranger out of his skin, where he was having a very nice conversation with his other self. "GET YOUR SORRY ASS OVER HERE AND TEACH KIRA THE DEFINITION OF 'ACTING NORMAL'!"

"But he doesn't know how to act normal," Kira protested as Xander stumbled over.

Tori put her head in her hands and moaned. "Why do I even bother?"

"Um, excuse me? T-Tori?" Her double was tapping her shoulder, and then frowned. "Oh, wow. That sounds really weird."

"Right," Tori mumbled. "'Sa—' what?"

"Yeah, uh, I'm Sally Martin." She stuck out a hand.


	3. World News

**Author's Note: **So basically, I've figured, what the hell, so what if they're reading this? I doubt that actors spend their free time surfing the Internet and reading fanfiction about characters that they portrayed a decade ago. If they did...

Now, that would just be weird.

The preview of Chapter Three; I decided not to add Bridge and Xander...too much to do and not enough time.

I might be looking for a beta reader. If you're interested, PM me, and we'll see what we can do.

* * *

**Chasing the Storm**

* * *

**Last time on **_**Chasing the Storm**_**... **

As Mr. Hartford breaks out the news to the Overdrive Rangers that they aren't allowed to fight anymore, this obviously doesn't go out too well with them. Meanwhile, the Retro Rangers are battling Moltor, Flurious, and Thrax while getting to know that "actor doubles" on the Power Rangers TV show...and freaking them out considerably. But what's with Flurious mentioning a place in China?

* * *

**3. World News**

Tori shook the outstretched hand. "Um...hi, then?"

"I thought that we already did introductions," Sally muttered, dropping the American accent.

Tori stared at her as if she was from outer space. "Whaaaaaaaa?"

"I thought. That we. Already did. Introductions," Sally slowly said again.

"Oh yeah er sorry it's just your voice changed are you British?" Tori asked quickly, all in one breath.

Sally took a moment to take apart the sentence. Then, she shook her head. "No...I'm from Wellington..."

"Where's Wellington? Belgium? So you're Belgium-ian?" Well, could you blame Tori? She was never good at geography back at school.

Tori could almost see Sally think, _Is she mentally challenged?_ "Wellington...the capital of...New Zealand..."

"Oh...it all makes sense now!" Tori fake-enthused, although the explanation left her with more questions than answers. "But then, why are you in America?"

Sally looked at her strangely. "We're kinda in New Zealand..."

"No, we aren't!" Tori protested, waving her arms. "New Zealand's an island! America isn't! I may have gotten a sixty-three on my final exam in geography, but I know that America's not an island!"

Sally looked taken aback. "You got a _sixty-three_ on your final exam?"

Tori adopted a defensive demeanor. "I didn't flunk!"

Sally looked as if she wanted to say something else, but she decided against it and dropped the subject. "But anyways: I'm guessing that you're actually doing this Once a Ranger thing?"

"So...does that mean that the thing-movie-thing you're _filming_ is called 'Once a Ranger'?" Tori cluelessly asked.

Sally looked at her weirdly. "'Thing-movie-thing?'"

"Oh..." Tori smacked her forehead. _You idiot of a ninja, Tori!_ "Show-thingy-ma-jing," she said with finality.

"Sure. Let's go with that," Sally casually replied. "The _episode _that we're filming for the _season_ Operation Overdrive in the _show_ Power Rangers is called 'Once a Ranger'. Two parts."

Tori swallowed. "I knew that. I totally knew that."

"Sure," Sally said with a sarcastic smile. "You keep on telling yourself that, and maybe it'll come true someday."

Oh, they were going to have _so_ much fun together...

* * *

"So! Hi!" Kira smiled at her actor, which still seemed a tad weird to her. "I'm Kira. Kira Ford—wait, no, that isn't right, you already know my name, don't you? I mean, you're my actor, which means that you played me, which means that you know me!"

"Oookay," her actress nervously said. "Are you hyped up on coke or something?"

Kira felt offended. "I don't do drugs!"

"So...why're you so hyper?" other Kira questioned.

"Naturally so," Kira replied quickly. "Why? What's TV me like?"

"Not...really...hyper? I guess?" other Kira hesitantly replied.

"Oh..." Kira visibly deflated. "Okay. But this is Real Life Kira speaking, and that's my personality."

The actress opened her mouth to reply, but then decided against it. "Well, then...anyways. I'm Emma Lahana..."

"Oh my god!" Kira excitedly said. "I know you! You're that chick from...from...you know, I can't remember now. Shoot."

"Chick?" Emma asked, looking very scared of Kira.

Kira just shrugged. "Eh."

Emma shut her eyes, like she was thinking, _Kill me now. Please._ For some reason, when Kira got too hyped up, she tended to freak people out. She was still trying to figure out why—it wasn't _her_ fault that she had a mild case of ADHD, especially in the hyperactive sense of the...abnormality.

"But it's okay!" Kira continued abruptly. "We'll still have fun together!"

"...Sure..."

Well, wasn't she optimistic.

* * *

"You're Adam, I take?"

The Black Mighty Morphin' Ranger nodded. "Yeah, that's me. Adam Park. And you are...?"

"Johnny Young Bosch. Nice to meet you." They shook hands.

Adam glanced over sideways, to where the girls were chatting with their respective actresses. "They seem like they're having a...really fun time talking."

"You're one to speak," Johnny laughed. "Because Emma—you know, Kira Ford's actress—looks kind of scared of Kira, and Sally looks as if she thinks...what's-her-name..."

"Tori," Adam supplied.

"Yeah, her, is mentally challenged."

Adam leaned to talk into Johnny's ear. "Don't tell them I said this, because there's _nothing_ more frightening than two angry girls chasing you down, but I think that it's kinda true."

Obviously, he really needed to work on his whispering, because this was what happened next:

"Hey! I heard that!"

Tori and Kira both tore their attention away from their actresses and glared at him.

"You know what, man?" Johnny grinned. "I think that you just earned yourself a one-way ticket to hell."

"You're right," Adam agreed. "Thankfully, I've had a lot of practice in the art of running away from furious Ranger teammates."

Tori and Kira both charged him. "GET OVER HERE, YOU ASS!"

As Adam ran from the two crazy mad woman, he caught sight of Johnny, Tori's actress, and Kira's actress talking amongst themselves and laughing at the scene.

He would let it go for now. Because really, it had to be pretty funny to see a man in black being tackled by two girls who were both at least a head shorter than him.

* * *

Shane rubbed his forehead in exasperation, staring blankly at the writhing mass of arguing Rangers and a single Mr. Hartford trying to break up the mess.

"Dude!" Dustin called over the carnage, ducking under a flying lightbulb, which smashed on the opposite wall, "you going to help us, or what?"

"Adam and the others are bound to come back soon," Shane replied, switching his attention to the doorway. "Hopefully, with their doubles or stunties or whoever they are."

"Speak of the devil," Dustin grinned as Adam slid down the pole. Soon afterwards, another Adam did so, and the rest of the Retros were quick to follow.

"...What's going on here?" Bridge's contemporary uncertainly asked.

Shane looked back.

"BUT I DON'T WANT TO STAY IN HERE! I WANT TO KICK HIS ASS!"

"ME TOO!"

"ME THREE!"

"THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A 'ME THREE'!"

"WHO SAYS?"

"STOP IT!" Mr. Hartford desperately shouted, but his voice was lost to the clamor.

Kira got an odd look on her face, and Tori fell over on her back in alarm, stumbling into Adam as Kira accidentally (or not) used her as a propeller source, and then, she screamed.

"AUGH!" came the anguished yell of six Overdrive Rangers as they clasped their hands over their ears while waves of yellow sound resonated through the base. The computer screen cracked, and the few amount of chairs that were in the room smashed into the wall a couple seconds later.

Shane stared at the petite girl, open-mouthed. "Um..."

"Oops." Kira sheepishly grinned. "Sorry. I was just trying to, you know, get them to shut up."

A moan came from Dax, who was squashed underneath Will. "It worked."

Mr. Hartford was staring at his sparking computers in horror. "Do you know how much those cost?"

"Um..." Kira sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. "A few billion dollars?"

The Overdrive Rangers' mentor didn't bother to answer as he crawled under the desk the computers were on to examine the extent of the damage.

Tori groaned from besides Adam. "Did you _have_ to push me back to move yourself forwards?"

"I wasn't using you as a wall," Kira promptly replied, "I just felt like pushing you down."

"_What? _What kind of reason is that?"

"In any case!" Dustin smiled at the actors, breaking in before Tori could push Kira back, "Hi! My name's Dustin!" He grabbed Tori No. 2's hand, jerking it up and down so vigorously that it seemed like he was trying to yank the girl's arm out of its socket. "Oh, dude, you look _exactly_ like Tori! No surprise there, though, huh, 'cause you were commissioned to play her, right? I bet that if Sensei Watanabe were here, or Blake, they wouldn't be able to tell the difference! Was filming Power Rangers fun? I didn't know that Power Rangers was a TV show before this. Did you do the team-up with Wild Force? Did it hurt? How were the suits? Did you really do all of your moves? OH MY GOD, THIS IS SO COOL!"

"Dustin." Shane cleared his throat, nervously looking at the actress, who looked as if she were about to die. "Dustin? Hey, Dustin..."

"WHO WAS THE ACTOR FOR TOMMY?" Dustin manically grinned, still shaking hands. "WAS HE AS AWESOME AS HE IS IN REAL LIFE? DID YOU SEE HIM? DID YOU EVER MEET COLE AND WILD FORCE? DO YOU SURF? WHERE DO YOU LIVE?"

"Dustin, stop it!" Shane groaned, pulling Dustin away (who was still incessantly babbling). "No offense, man, but you're embarrasing all of us!"

"Are not!" Dustin looked indignantly at Tori, who was trying to stifle her giggles. "Tori, do you agree with Shane?"

Tori backed away slowly. "If you excuse me for a moment, I'll give you an answer." She ducked into the bathroom and shut the door.

"I think that she's dying in there," Kira commented after a few moments of awkward silence, which was only broken by the muffled laughter from behind the closed door.

"_Anyways,_" Mack started, coming forwards to join Shane and Dustin, "It's great to have you guys here, but would you mind—"

There was a loud popping noise, and the computer screen (which still had a large crack running through it) shivered to life to display a reporter.

"—only thirty minutes ago, were right here," the reporter was saying, "filming an episode for the current season of 'Power Rangers', which is owned by Disney. The crew present at the moment the actors were taken are unable to make a statement as of right now. Police are still investigating this developing story, and we will stay with it throughout the day. Reporting live from Auckland, New Zealand*****, this is Jennifer Chen, Channel 3 News."

"I have a newly-developed hatred for how fast news travels," Adam remarked after a stunned Andrew Hartford shut the computer off.

"Maybe we should call them to say that we're okay," Xander's actor mentioned uncertainly.

"Who's 'them'?" Adam asked.

The bathroom door creaked open, and Tori staggered out of it, her face red.

"Done dying?" Shane wryly questioned.

"Funniest. Thing. Ever!" she exclaimed, and then noticed the somber looks on everyone's faces. "What did I miss?"

"Oh, I don't know," Bridge commented, sauntering up to the Blue Ranger, "just the fact that the whole world is probably searching for us now?"

"Why would they do that?" Tori frowned. "It's not as if they know that we exist."

"Or, you know, they might start calling _us,_" Xander's actor was explaining to Adam, clearly having a one-sided conversation with the Black Ranger and not at all listening to Tori or Bridge. "And then, things would get awkward."

"...We could say that we're with Power Rangers," Bridge's actor suggested. "Like, _real_ Power Rangers."

"And then, we'd get thrown into an insane asylum," Kira's contemporary dryly replied.

"Hey!" Dax called, from where he was still on the floor. "Um, what're your names, like Mack asked before?"

Shane's phone buzzed, and he turned away, half listening to the actors introduce themselves as they got excitedly swarmed by the Overdrive Rangers, and he glanced at the caller.

"Hunter?"

_"Shane? Where are you?"_

"Um, San Angeles. Why?"

_"Yeah, see, I was wondering...you didn't happen to hear the news about the actors—"_

"I'm with them."

_"What? You blanked out for a second there."_

"I'm _with_ the actors," Shane irritably replied. "You know, with them? By them? Seeing them? Hearing them? Look, there's this new monster out called Thrax...and he mistook these guys for the Retro Rangers, but they were just filming a show—"

_"What?"_ Hunter asked again, although there was definite shock in his tone this time. _"You're _with_ them? And the news said that they were filming_ Power Rangers_! Since when was Power Rangers a damn TV show?"_

"I dunno, man," Shane sighed. "It's just that—"

"SHANE!" two voices simotaneously yelled, and Tori and Dustin rushed over to him.

"Sorry," he hurriedly said into his phone, "gotta go—bye—_ouch!_"

"You're Pua!" Dustin smirked, clapping him on the back.

"I beg your pardon?" Shane frowned.

But neither of his fellow Wind Rangers elaborated as they broke down into laughter. Shane stared down at them uncomprehensibly, causing a chain reaction as Kira and Bridge doubled over into each other, knocking heads as they joined the giggles.

"Rangers seem to have a pretty heavy sense of humor, don't they?" Emma Lahana whispered to Matt Austin.

"Well, they _are_ saving the world most of the time...and almost getting killed..."

"But doesn't that mean that they would be depressed?"

"That's my point."

* * *

**End Notes:** Place in China to be revealed next chapter. And you'll never catch me doing the following thing again.

_**OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG MEGAFORCE PREMIERES ON FEBRUARY 2 AUUUUGGGGHHHH MUST SEE IT'S THE ANNIVERSARY SEASON AND MAY BE THE ONLY GOOD ONE BECAUSE BOTH WF AND OO KINDA SUCKED OH MY GOD I'M SO EXCIIIIIIIIITED...**_

Okay, I'm done hyperventilating.

You guys should review. Otherwise, how will I know if you stopped reading after two words or if you read the whole thing?


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